We just got back from the RILA Retail Supply Chain Conference in Dallas where we learned a ton. We met with and heard from great supply chain executives in the retail sector and wanted to share some of our key takeaways from the conference here with you today on Logistics 2.0.

Welcome to Logistics 2.0. I’m Karl Siebrecht with FLEXE. Last week, we spent three days in Dallas at the RILA Retail Supply Chain Conference. We learned a ton. We met and heard from some great supply chain executives, and more than anything, came away more energized than ever about the potential for new Logistics 2.0 innovations to drive great change in the industry today. Executives from Target, from Unilever, JC Penny, Home Depot, and dozens of others shared their perspectives, insight, and some advice on how to manage change going forward. I wanna share some of our key takeaways with you here today.

First, the level of competitive intensity in retail is ratcheting up very significantly, of course, driven largely by Amazon. They’re investing billions in innovating very, very quickly, with no end in sight. And along the way, they’re driving massive change in consumer expectations and forcing all other retailers to react and to try to keep up.

Second, the supply chain today is now being viewed as truly strategic within many large national and global retailers. Brian Cornell, the CEO of Target, gave a fantastic presentation and made this exact point. No longer is the supply chain sort of a back office, necessary function required to do business. Increasingly now, it is being seen as absolutely critical to keep up with changing consumer demands and necessary to drive both growth and competitive advantage across the corporation.

Third, while there is clearly a lot of anxiety around trying to keep up with Amazon and compete with them, there is also a ton of energy and optimism around finding new ways to innovate and compete. This, combined with an emergence of a bunch of new companies bringing truly innovative new technologies to bear on the problem, are creating a real sense that we’re entering a phase of new step change in innovation in the supply chain industry today.

Fourth, retail executives who are acutely aware of these issues have now begun to prioritize supply chain innovation at the very top of their company-wide initiatives. A great example of this is Mike Robbins, who is SVP of Omnichannel at JC Penny, who spoke to the audience and encouraged leaders there to go back to their teams and require them to come up with 10 to 15 new ideas for doing things differently, fundamentally differently in supply chain and distribution today, so that they could start playing offense instead of continually feeling like they’re playing defense.

If you were also at RILA, we’d love to hear your takeaways as well. And if you weren’t, you should definitely put it on your list for next year. That’s it for this week. If you enjoy the content, subscribe to our channel, sign up for our email, and please comment below. I’m Karl Siebrecht with FLEXE, and thanks for watching Logistics 2.0.